That sound you hear is Blizzard hoisting its mighty Diablo III banhammer and getting ready to bring it down in a mighty swing. Out of the blue yesterday, the publisher posted a stern warning that it will start suspending and banning Diablo III players "found to be cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form... in the near future."

It's a bit odd that the company is issuing such a public, precautionary warning to cheaters; in the past, the company has simply bannedcheaters by the thousands before announcing its actions. The increased focus on cheating might have something to do with the pending launch of Diablo III's real-money auction house, which has already led Blizzard to require two-factor authentication for those using the service.

Most commenters are already lauding Blizzard's announcement, hopeful that the bans will limit commercial spam in the public chat channel and suspect sales in the auction house. But some players worry that the bans will sweep up legitimate players inadvertently exploiting in-game bugs without any explicit hacking.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl